An executive job search is nothing at all like the
quest for contractor gigs, clerical work, and
other "labor" jobs. The skills expected of a
potential manager or CEO are fundamentally
different from those expected of construction
workers, secretaries, and project coordinators. In
a lot of ways, these skills are much harder to
define, since they revolve around things like
leadership, ethics, vision, and other
hard-to-define qualities.
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That said, the demand for top-level executives
with proven track records remains high, even in
sluggish economies. In fact, demand often rises
for great leaders in times of crisis, as they are
the ones that boards of directors and owners turn
to in order to turn ships around. A great
executive not only instills confidence in the top
brass of his or her corporation but the underlings
as well, the very people who make the company run.
Conducting Your Executive Job Search
The parameters of your executive job search will
be largely defined by your past work experience.
If you've spent years running a sales force, few
companies will expect you to handle a role as a
technology officer. By the same token, if you've
spent the past 20 years developing cutting-edge
software for a computer firm, you'll likely make a
poor real estate office manager. That's not to say
that many executives don't swap horses midstream,
just that good executives tend to play to their
strengths.
Conducting a search for management jobs can be
somewhat harder than looking for retail jobs or
other entry-level positions. For one thing,
executives tend to stick around in the same job a
lot longer than coffee shop workers and
telemarketers. There's also fierce competition for
the most selective jobs out there, which means
girding yourself for battle is one of the most
critical components of your executive job search.
